The Effects of Obstacle Aspect Ratio on Surrounding Flows

The characteristics of flow around a single obstacle with fixed height and varied length and width are numerically investigated using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. As the obstacle length increases, flow distortion near the upwind side of the obstacle increases and the size of the recirculation zone behind the obstacle also increases. As the obstacle width increases, the size of the recirculation zone decreases, despite almost invariable flow distortion near the upwind side of the obstacle. Flow passing through an obstacle is separated, one part going around the obstacle and the other crossing over the obstacle. The size of the recirculation zone is determined by the distance between the obstacle and the point (reattachment point) at which both the flows converge. When the obstacle width is relatively large, flows are reattached at the obstacle surface and their recoveries occur. Resultant shortening of the paths of flows crossing over and going around decreases the size of the recirculation zone. To support this, the extent of flow distortion defined based on the change in wind direction is analyzed. The result shows that flow distortion is largest near the ground surface and decreases with height. An increase in obstacle length increases the frontal area fraction of flow distortion around the obstacle. In the cases of increasing the width, the frontal area fraction near the upwind side of the obstacle does not change much, but near the downwind side, it becomes larger as the width increases. The frontal area fraction is in a better correlation with the size of the recirculation zone than the building aspect ratios, suggesting that the frontal area fraction is a good indicator for explaining the variation in the size of the recirculation zone with the building aspect ratios.